


Tell me about it

by vrepitsals



Series: They call Lance the Taylor [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Getting Together, Keith thought Lance's name was Taylor, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 05:03:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15453915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vrepitsals/pseuds/vrepitsals
Summary: "If you could change one thing about the Garrison what would-""Name tags," Keith all but shouts, before Pidge even has the chance to finish the question.---Keith and Lance share stories about the crushes they had on each other at the Garrison.Unfortunately, Keith thinks his crush's name was Taylor, and Lance's was James.





	Tell me about it

**Author's Note:**

> With the influx of new content based on the headcanon that Keith thought Lance's name was Taylor, I was inspired to write another fic for this headcanon. [Both fics are independent of each other, I just grouped them for book keeping]
> 
> This fic is set in during season 3, before Shiro's return.

"If you could change one thing about the Garrison what would-"

"Name tags," Keith all but shouts, before Pidge even has the chance to finish the question.

Hunk looks up from where he's been fiddling with a communicator for the last thirty minutes. The four of them have all been sitting in one of the common areas of the castle, each working on their own tasks until Pidge's question broke the silence.

Now, apparently Keith has gotten everyone's attention.

"Name tags? Why?" Lance asks, reminding Keith that he has heard this entire exchange. Which is the last thing Keith needs, really.

Keith has never been a big blusher, but he swears all the blood in his body is currently pooled around his cheeks.

"What?" Keith feigns ignorance.

"The question was: if you could change one thing about the Garrison - what would it be and why? You told us the what - so why?" Pidge says.

Keith shrugs.

"No reason."

"Come on Keith," Hunk says, "I wouldn't exactly call name tags a normal request. I mean we've discussed this before - Pidge said she'd want to punch Iverson in the face, and Lance said-"

"-some damn respect-" Lance interjects.

"-but name tags?"

Keith forces a laugh. "I guess I already punched Iverson, so…"

"Wait, wait, wait-" Pidge holds out her hands "-when did you punch Iverson? Tell me every. single. detail."

Keith pauses.

"There's not much to tell. It was after Kerberos. Iverson crossed a line. I knew I was leaving anyway, and I didn't think. My only regret is I never saw the black eye I must have given him."

"Black eye?" Lance exclaims, sitting up straight, "buddy, he lost the use of his left eye completely. Are you telling us _you_ did that?"

Pidge starts laughing, falling over herself and off the couch. Hunk leans forward to pat her half-heartedly on the back.

"Next time we do the mind meld exercise promise you'll show us that memory," Pidge says after she's regained her breath.

Keith smiles at her.

"Sure thing."

"Now - name tags," Hunk says, holding up his index finger.

Keith doesn't want to lie, but telling the truth, the plain open truth would be somewhat akin to giving them, giving Lance a loaded gun and pointing out the exact location of his heart. Lance doesn't pull punches when it comes to Keith. There's no way he'd let his middle school crush go.

"I … struggle with names," Keith tells a half-truth, not the full reason, but not a lie either, "I found it hard to - a visual reminder would have been good, that's all."

Keith expects Lance to laugh. Even this half-truth is enough amo for a joke or two. He can handle jabs about this. It probably wouldn't even really hurt.

But Lance is silent and looks contemplative. Like he's found a piece to a long-standing puzzle.

It's Hunk who speaks.

"That's fair enough," Hunk says, "I'm not good at faces myself. Some sort of student directory probably would have been useful, now that you mention it. Especially if we could black mark all the crappy group members."

Keith laughs, and settles back against the couch.

"What would you change?" He asks Hunk.

"More family days," Hunk says, "or better equipment maybe. I swear there wasn't a single practical class where the kit actually had all the parts we needed."

Keith can't really relate, having only ever done piloting practicals, but Pidge grumbles her agreement and the two of them start complaining about their respective lab partners.

Lance knocks his knee gently into Keith's leg.

"Sorry if I was a dick about you not remembering me. I didn't realise it was a thing, you know?"

Keith can't keep a smile from his face when Lance leans over and talks to him this quietly. This much in their own little world.

"It's alright. I'm sorry I didn't remember you. It took me almost a year to learn a single student's name, if that makes you feel any better?"

"Oooh," Lance leans closer with a shit-eating grin, "tell me more about your Garrison crush Keith."

Keith blushes at the proximity and blindly hopes that Lance will assume it's a result of his words.

"It wasn't like that," Keith says, even though it definitely was.

"Oh really?" Lance asks, waggling his eyebrows, "then what was it like?"

Keith pushes Lance's shoulder in lieu of a response and Lance all but falls over laughing.

It gets Keith thinking. About the Garrison. About how much easier having Lance like this would have made it. If he'd had a Lance back then, maybe he wouldn't have left. Maybe he would have had a reason to stay.

Instead, all he'd had was a Taylor. An unattainable dream.

Keith still doesn't remember Lance from the Garrison. He can't imagine that there was a space outside of his vision large enough to contain Lance, but Lance isn't the kind of boy he ever could have looked past.

If Keith had seen Lance, he knows he would have been taken by him completely, the way he is now.

As if he knows how weak Keith is, Lance leans over and rests his head on Keith's shoulder.

"Tell me about your Garrison crush Keith," Lance whines, drawing out each syllable as long as it will go.

Keith doesn't describe Taylor. If he's honest, he doesn't remember him that clearly anymore. It's been years since they stopped sharing classes and Keith doesn't really have a mind for faces either.

Instead he starts with a story. Something he once called _Cute Cargo Pilot Plan A_.

"I didn't know his name for almost a year," Keith starts, "so one time I begged Shiro to let me hand around the sign up sheet for simulator time slots. The plan was to get him to fill it out first and then when he handed it back I could read his name off it, you know?"

Lance nods, and Keith can feel the vibration of Lance's hum through his shoulder blade. It's calming, and even though Keith knows Lance's fond smile is at his expense, he can't help but return it.

"Anyway, I go up to him, heart pounding. It's three months in, too late to ask, but that was the day I was going to learn his name. I hand him the form, he fills it out, right as planned. I'm just about to take it back before he runs off to give it to his roommate. He gave it back to me at the end of the day, signed by everyone in the class."

Lance falls back against the couch cushions, hand over his eyes, howling with laughter.

Hunk looks up at them and Keith shrugs. After a few minutes Lance quietens down.

"That was amazing," he says, "poor baby-Keith. Tell me another one."

"Not until you tell me about your Garrison crush," Keith says, trying to look suave, but worrying he just looks like an idiot.

Lance stares at him for a long moment, finger stroking his chin in thought.

"He was the worst," Lance says finally.

Keith laughs and shoves Lance playfully, before getting up to go train.

"Tell me another story Keith," Lance pesters, trailing after him.

"For that? No way," Keith replies, skirting around where Lance tries to grab his elbow.

Lance lets out an exaggerated sigh.

"Fine. Wanna spar?"

"You know it."

* * *

Somehow, that becomes their thing. Mutual embarrassment at the hands of sharing stories about their Garrison crushes.

"I saw him get into a fist fight once," Lance mutters to Keith during dinner, "I talked a big game, but you have to understand that at the time the worst thing I'd ever done was put a whoopie cushion under a teacher's chair. So I was quite… impressed to say the least."

"Did he win?"

Lance laughs under his breath.

"Trust you to ask that," Lance says, "the instructors intervened pretty quickly, but in my mind? Yeah, he did."

* * *

"You know how they used to have a suggestion box in the cafeteria?" Keith asks nonchalantly one day, as the four of them are playing go fish with homemade cards.

"Yes?" Hunk says, more a question than a statement.

Pidge looks confused too, but the way Lance's eyes light up tells Keith that he knows exactly what this story is about.

"You know why they got rid of it?"

"Because Iverson hates collaboration?" Pidge guesses.

Keith shakes his head.

"Because I filled the entire box with pieces of paper saying 'name tags' every day for three weeks straight."

"Why?" Hunk asks, as Lance falls over in a fit of laughter.

Keith shrugs in response to Hunk's question, and Hunk frowns before asking Pidge if she has any threes.

* * *

"Annoying?" Keith asks while they're sparring.

Lance dodges Keith's punch and goes for an uppercut as he answers.

"Quiznack yes," he says, grinning at Keith.

Keith takes a step back to avoid the blow and begins to circle around the mat, hands in front of him. His breath is coming harder than it used to. They've both improved in recent months, but Lance's progress has been near staggering. While victory used to feel relatively easy, now it is hard won.

"I meant your Garrison crush," Keith says, feinting left and punching right.

"Oh well in that case, " Lance says, seemingly taken aback by Keith's strike.

Seemingly, because a split second later Keith's knees are swept out from under him and he's lying with his back on the mat, Lance offering a hand to help him up.

He takes it, and tries to pull Lance down with him. But instead Lance heaves him up, throwing Keith off balance so that he's all but in Lance's arms and far, far too close.

Lance stares him right in the eyes, smirking.

"Quiznack yes."

* * *

"I wrote a poem about him once," Keith whispers during team movie night. Lance is pressed up beside him so that everyone can fit on one couch, and it's taking most of Keith's willpower not to reach out and take Lance's hand.

"You didn't," Lance whispers back, "what was it?"

"Can't remember," Keith says, unable to mask his grin.

Lance pokes his leg with a sock-clad foot.

"Liar," he whispers into Keith's ear.

* * *

"I think I knew I liked him the first time I saw him fly," Lance admits while they're watching the stars as the rest of the castle sleeps.

"Yeah?" Keith says, leaning closer to share Lance's warmth.

"Yeah."

"I think I knew I liked him the first time I heard him laugh," Keith says back.

Lance hums, and they sit in silence for a few minutes.

"I don't know if I ever heard him laugh," Lance whispers, more to the stars than to Keith.

Keith has to suppress a shudder at the realisation that finally sparks. An annoying pilot who got into fights and never seemed happy all points to a single cadet, the only other name Keith ever learned.

But if Taylor spells heaven, then James spells hell.

He feels a little sick. Lance deserves better than James, by leaps and bounds. Even back then, even if Keith didn't seem him back then, there's no way he didn't deserve better.

"Would you have dated him if he'd asked you then?"

"Well yeah," Lance shrugs, "that's kind of what a crush entails Keith. Why? Wouldn't you?"

Keith shakes his head to try and clear it. There's a stone settling into his gut.

Did he want Taylor then? Obviously. But would he want Taylor now, now that Lance is right here, so close and yet so far?

The fact that James isn't here is Keith's one comfort. But Taylor's absence doesn't really bother him as much as it should.

"I don't think he ever liked me much," Keith says instead.

"That's not answering the question."

"Then yeah. Back then I guess," Keith mutters, "I think I'm going to go to bed, night Lance."

Keith leaves, trying and failing to stay composed.

Lance continues to stare at the stars.

"Everyone liked you Keith."

* * *

 

As they go on and Keith's stories wear thin, Lance begs for the final one.

"Tell me about when you found out his name."

"There's nothing to tell," Keith brushes him off, "it's not like we rode off into the sunset. He didn't even notice anything when it happened."

"That's not an answer Keith," Lance protests, slinging an arm around Keith's shoulder as they walk to dinner, "I've heard all the build-up, I want to know how it ends."

Keith doesn't want it to end. He likes their banter. He likes having a reason to seek out Lance whenever he wants. He likes having something that's just theirs. But once he finishes the story it'll be over, gone.

He likes to think that they won't just go back to the way they were. It doesn't seem possible, not now, not after they've been through so much together. But every time Keith thinks he has Lance figured out, has whatever this thing between them is figured out, Lance goes ahead and changes the game.

"I'll tell you-" Keith says and Lance cheers "-the next time you do something awesome in battle."

"So what? 2 weeks? 2 months?" Lance asks. His tone is light, but Keith catches his frown.

"More like 2 days, Sharpshooter." Six months ago Keith would have kept it inside, assuming Lance didn't need the praise, thinking it'd be thrown back in his face.

Now however, Keith knows that Lance's exuberance hides something, even if he's not yet certain what it is. Now Keith knows that he would happily sacrifice his dignity to keep a smile on Lance's face.

Just like the one that is poking its way through now, as Lance bumps his shoulder with Keith's.

"Who told you about that nickname?"

"Shiro," Keith replies easily.

"Oh, so you talked about me?" Lance asks, but he doesn't dwell on the question, "I'm just glad it's a good one."

"Do you have others?"

"It's embarrassing. I'll tell you when you tell me the story about your crush's name."

"Fair enough."

They continue walking down the corridor towards the kitchen, ignoring the way their fingers brush.

* * *

 

Lance seems intent on getting himself killed. Keith really should have known better than to promote his recklessness. It seems like yet more proof that Keith isn't the leader that Shiro was.

Still, Keith has to admit that Lance has the skills to back up his ambition, when he sees him navigate the Red Lion through a hole in a Galra ship Keith doesn't even think he could manage.

It puts Lance in the perfect position to prevent the Galra fleet from surrounding the cargo ships they're protecting.

He keeps an eye on where Lance is separated from the rest of the team, but it turns out he doesn't need to. The Red Lion probably takes out more ships than Blue and Green combined.

Lance looks untouchable.

When they touch down in the hangar Keith can't decide whether to berate Lance or praise him, so instead he draws Lance into his arms. The touch reassures him that Lance is still here, and Keith feels the adrenaline from the fight leave him.

Or perhaps it's just Lance making his knees weak.

"Is that good enough for the story?" Lance whispers into Keith's ear, sending shivers down his spine.

Somehow ' _never do that again you quiznack of a reckless quiznacking quiznack'_ and _'you're perfect'_ both enter his speech processing channel, but what comes out of his mouth is "yeah."

Lance gives him one more squeeze before he pulls away. Keith remembers he has a job to do and moves over to Allura to discuss next steps.

However, he's still close-by enough to hear Pidge's exclamation as she takes a running leap at Lance.

"Nice work Tailor!!"

Keith freezes. Allura asks him something, but it turns into white noise as he turns to look at where Lance is doing his victory dance with Pidge still hanging around his neck.

Taylor and Lance are nothing alike. Lance is all height and determination and laughter where Taylor is all shortness and… determination and laughter. As the minutes pass Keith focusses on the fragments of Taylor he remembers: his eyes, his nose, his chin.

Then he tries aging them up, tries growing out Taylor's limbs and adding confidence to his grin.

And he finds Lance.

Allura says something again, before Keith hears two sets of footsteps leave the hangar.

Lance puts Pidge down, and the two of them look in Keith's direction. Or, at least what Keith assumes is his direction. His mind seems to have abandoned him at the moment. Perhaps he should check back later.

"Oh right - I have a… super important meeting with Allura and Hunk right now. See you later!" Pidge yells as she all but sprints out of the room.

Lance sends him a smile and raises an eyebrow.

"You good Keith?"

"That's the story."

It isn't until Lance steps forward that Keith realises the words are his.

"What's the story?"

"We were coming out of the simulator, and he'd done well, really well, probably a PB. One of the other students high fived him and said his name. That's how I learned your name was Taylor."

Lance stares.

"Taylor?"

"Yeah," Keith says, "with a 'y'."

Lance laughs. He raises one hand to cover his mouth and his eyes crinkle shut.

Despite his blindness he stumbles forward, veering slightly from left to right. Keith moves forward to catch Lance in his arms.

"I told you my nickname was embarrassing," Lance chuckles into Keith's shoulder.

"Taylor?"

"With an 'i'. Because of how I thread the needle."

Keith loses it. Lance is the only thing keeping him up. It's so Lance. It's so Taylor. It's so every single thing Keith knows about them - him - wrapped up in a big, bright blue ribbon.

"I was twelve when I came up with it," Lance grumbles.

"Rest assured you will never hear the last of it, "Keith says as he recovers.

Keith would say more, but all and any words fall out of his consciousness when Lance places a hand on his cheek.

"I never heard you laugh at the Garrison, so I had to wait until I saw you fly to fall for you," Lance whispers accusingly.

"I thought you liked James?"

"What? No." Lance stares at him. "He was a douche, why the hell would I have liked him?"

Keith deliberates for a moment.

"His was the only other name I knew."

Lance's face is incredulous, then it's mirth, then it's pure shining joy.

When he starts to close the distance Keith meets him halfway.

Kissing Lance is nothing like Keith imagined kissing Taylor would be. For one thing, he has to lean slightly up rather than down. They're also not surrounded by a dorm room, or the night sky, or anything vaguely Earthen. They're also wearing armour that clinks where their arms touch, and there's the post-battle smell of sweat and metal.

It's so much better than anything Keith imagined.

Lance leans his forehead up against Keith's as they break apart.

"Not bad for three years of pining."

"I'm sorry I didn't remember you from the Garrison. Turns out I'm bad at faces as well as names," Keith says.

Lance doesn't lose any of his smile.

"I’d have this over that any day," he says, " although there is the slight fact that we could have been together since the Garrison."

"If I'd asked you out then you would have said yes?"

"That's kind of the point Keith."

Keith can't help his pause.

"If I asked you out now you'd say yes?"

Lance taps Keith's foot lightly with his boot.

"So ask me already."

Keith does, and Lance answers with a kiss.

They still have a debriefing to get to, so eventually they break apart and leave the room, hand in hand.

"When we get back to Earth I'm going to get you the respect you deserve," Keith says.

Lance squeezes Keith's hand and leans over to kiss his cheek.

"And I'm going to buy the Garrison a whole shipment of name tags."

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> I'm also over @vrepit-sals on tumblr so feel free to come and say hi.


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